I'm really not enjoying Flash ...

Question: I'm really not enjoying Flash Gordon, which surprises me, because I really want to like it. I have happy childhood memories of watching the Flash Gordon cartoon, and as cheesy as it was, I thought the movie with the Queen theme song was wonderful. But this show has left me cold. The premiere took a ridiculously long time to get from Earth to Mongo, and it's not as if all that time was dedicated to developing the characters, since they seem to have the emotional depth of cardboard. And why does Ming the Merciless look like Rick Springfield? I understand some of what they're doing: Instead of a stolen spaceship going to Mongo and being stuck there, which would mean a ridiculous amount of money for a television show, you have a teleportation device. That way, you can have half the story be on Earth (no special effects) and the other half be on Mongo, which seems like an acceptable device to both update this idea and save on costs. But you'd think the few special effects would be something, considering the amount they're saving with this premise. Instead, we have Ming's chief scientist riding what seems to be a unicycle, and not even the laser blasts are convincing. I keep expecting Baron and Vultan to show up, but no such luck. Where did this show go wrong?
Answer: A lack of imagination and vision, a lack of proper budget allocation, a lack of professional execution in front of and behind the camera: those are pretty good places to start when trying to describe one of the year's least clever and least watchable fantasy outings. What a waste of a fun title.